Highgate in Vermont. With his family settled on this land, Metcalfe established a fur trading post at the mouth of the Missisquoi River. During the American Revolutionary War, Metcalfe supported the American cause. He was taken prisoner by the British and held in Montreal. As his wife accompanied him, three of his children were born in Montreal around 1777, 1779 and 1781. In early August 1781 their son George arrived with the fleet from England to join the family in Montreal, shortly before Simon and Thomas escaped. In 1783, after the Revolutionary War, the British released Catherine Metcalfe and 8 children as prisoners from Canada. Metcalfe's property located on Lake Champlain was destroyed during the war. After the war was over, Metcalfe moved with his family to Albany, the capital of the new state of New York. Maritime fur trade In the 1780s, Metcalfe took a consignment of seal furs from the Falkland Islands, which were being stored in New York City for trading. In 1787 he acquired the brig Eleanora (sometimes spelled Eleanor). In September 1787 he set sail for China on the Eleanora with a cargo of furs for trading. He continued as a maritime fur trader for the next seven years. He probably did not return to New York after leaving in 1787. Metcalfe might have been the first American to sail to the Pacific Northwest coast to pursue fur trading. In command of the Eleanora, he may have been on the Northwest Coast in 1787 or 1788, perhaps before the arrival of American captains Robert Gray and John Kendrick in August and September 1788. In 1789, both Simon Metcalfe and his son Thomas Humphrey Metcalfe were caught up in the Nootka Crisis at Nootka Sound, near present-day Vancouver Island. Major European powers were competing with the new United States and each other to establish control over trading in this area. Although the events at Nootka were mainly directed toward British merchant vessels, the Spanish naval officer Esteban José Martínez seized Thomas Metcalfe's small schooner, the . Simon Metcalfe approached Nootka Sound and the Eleanora was almost captured as well, but he managed to escape. The Fair American and its crew were taken to the Spanish naval base at San Blas. They were quickly released. The Metcalfes had planned to spend the winter in the Hawaiian Islands. After being released, Thomas Metcalfe sailed the Fair American to